red brick
victorian plumes
sooted and soiled
tattied
by scattered
cracked windows
a corroded
and rotted
epitaph
in a closed mill's
graveyard
nurtures the undergrowth
with the dank sturdiness
of sepulchres
unworshipped
monuments
corrupted and stripped
of decorations
stand dishonoured
forgotten proud servants
of a disgraced
empire
unkept
groomed rows
grown wild
abandoned
like shells
re-occupied
by bedsit hermits
breeding
new destruction
homes
wilfully
desecrated
by strangers
Written by Bob Dunning, 22/7/1990
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